Polarographic study of nifurtimox

Abstract

Nifurtimox is polarographically reducible over the whole pH range, the nitro group being reduced to the hydroxylamine group in a 4ē process and subsequently the amine being formed in a 2ē process at a pH value below 4. The C=N-N linkage is reduced by a mechanism involving reductive fission of the N-N bond. The differential pulse polarographic peaks for the reduction of the nitro group to the hydroxylamine group at pH 6 were used in developing a new polarographic method for the determination of nifurtimox in pharmaceutical forms.